The home electronics industry, in the midst of an on-going convergence of televisions and computers, has produced a new class of products, known as PC-TV systems, or personal-computer-television systems. In their simplest form, these systems allow users to selectively switch between using a video monitor, or display, to watch television or to support computer activities, like word processing, creating spread sheets, playing computer games, or even surfing the world wide web. A seminal example, the Gateway Destination PC-TV system, from Gateway 2000, Inc., not only weds a television to a personal computer, but allows system expansion to include video-cassette recorders, laser-disc players, video cameras, direct-broadcast-satellite receivers, and so forth.
Another feature of systems such as the Gateway Destination system is the use of a remote control, or wireless keyboard, placed some distance from the computer, so that users may participate in home entertainment as a family, instead of individually. Due to the number of components capable of being connected in such a system, control of the various components can become tedious. A graphical user interface displayed on the computer screen may allow individual control of the components of the system.
A number of application programs for communication and navigation on the Internet and world wide web are in common use, such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. These programs or browsers communicate with remote computer systems via the Internet or other computer network. When executed, the browser software causes the computer to operate a network communication device such as a modem. When browsing the world wide web, a user navigates to different environments, known as web pages. On these web pages, any number of features may be present, including applets.
An applet is a small application that is often present on world wide web sites. Applets are typically also shipped with an operating or a larger product, such as the calculator that comes with Windows. Applets on world wide web sites are often written in a programming language known as Java. Java is a platform-independent programming language. Java programs are commonly referred to as applets since they are most often used for small, transportable programs.
Applets are commonly loaded into a web browser when a user is navigating web pages. The applets may modify their own user interfaces. Applications taking the form of software stored on the hard drive of a computer also have graphical user interfaces for control of the applications. These user interfaces are modifiable by the user and by the program as well. Each application or applet has its own individual user interface.
Each individual user interface of an application or applet may contain a large number of functionalities. In certain instances, the functionalities of user interfaces may overlap to a small or even large degree. Applications and applets may modify their own user interfaces. However, each application or applet has its own functionality setup, and each application or applet generally has its own specific user interface. The various user interfaces are all separate. They do not act together or in a consistent manner.
Many consumer electronic appliances having screen displays, such as set top boxes, televisions, VCRs, and the like, are increasingly being connected to a home computer-based audio/video/computer system. An example of such a system is the Gateway Destination PC-TV system manufactured by Gateway 2000, Inc. Many such consumer electric appliances have severely limited on screen display (OSD) generators. Further, many of these types of appliances also have no windowing. In the computer-oriented marketplace, OSDs and windowing have become important tools for the management of various user preferences for such appliances.
It would be desirable to provide a graphical user interface having increased capability.